Eurasia Press & News
Moldova’s Interim President Mihai Ghimpu said on Wednesday that Romanian president’s earlier visit to Chisinau and his ongoing visit to Romania have both opened a new chapter in the history of the bilateral relations.
“I hope that these two days have quelled those who did not want to believe that we share the same identity and the same language,” said Ghimpu in his address to the students of the university Alaxandru Ioan Cuza from Iasi, northeastern Romania.
“We had a cruel fate. Today we have two countries where similar citizens having a shared identity, the Romanians, live,” he added.
Romanian President Traian Basescu said that Romania and Moldova “are two states and one people and have a common future.”
According to Basescu, the right to free movement is of utmost importance and stressed Moldovans ought to travel freely both in Romania and in the European Union.
He stressed that Romanian authorities amended the citizenship law, despite some politicians’ reluctance, who said the EU will react to this, but, he added, EU officials took no measure whatsoever in this respect.
Ghimpu paid an official visit to Romania on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, the two neighboring countries signed a joint declaration on instituting a strategic partnership for the European integration of the Republic of Moldova.
Early this year, on Jan. 27-28, Basescu paid his first official visit to Moldova, after the Alliance for European Integration came to power in 2009.
The relations between the two countries, which share a common language and history, warmed instantly after the Moldova opposition’s victory in last year’s elections. The new authorities in Chisinau abolished, late last year, visa requirements for Romanians traveling to Moldova, while Bucharest has said it will lobby for close ties between Moldova and the EU.
